How to make the perfect MMO – Part 4

Remember when we had this amount of customisation when levelling up? What happened?

OK, here’s the next area that I think needs to be drastically overhauled in the next generation of MMOs: character customisation. Sorry to go on about it, but we would never accept the type of customisation we are offered in MMOs in a single player game. In MMOs, the customisation of your character is mostly limited to: armour/items and some form of the talent tree that we have in World of Warcraft. Bring back the stats, for goodness sake.

In good old RPGs, we used to be able to spend a few points every level on our character’s stats, deciding whether to improve Strength or Intelligence, and each decision had a consequence for the abilities of a character. Then we would, as a spellcaster, be able to choose which spell we were going to take, or improve. We’d then have all the gear and weapon options that exist in current MMOs.

In MMOs today, you’re told what ability you will get at what level and it will be the same as everyone else. Worse, in some MMOs, that ability won’t even scale as you level up.

The loss of all those customisable elements from RPGs in MMOs means that if you stripped my Elf naked and another one, well aside from possible police questioning and at the very least a need for a good therapist, you’d have two identical characters. Now, I’ve been told by other gamers that this is the point, in order for raids to work, you need to know that a Warlock has a certain ability, but I say *******s to that. You can always say “Looking for Warlock with X for raid”.

I cannot see any justifiable reason why we cannot have the ability to create and mould our own characters, and actually it would be a good thing for developers because we’d feel far more attached to our personalised avatar that we’ve grown from a level 1 stripling.

In fairness the Talent tree in World of Wacraft does allow for some of this, but not as much, and also, it’s not just MMOs that are simplifying. Console RPGs are losing, or hiding, some of the options, presumably to “widen their appeal”. Quite what is appealing about a game with less gameplay than years before is beyond me. Fable and Fable 2, for example, while being my favourite console RPGs annoy the hell out of me with a complete lack of armour stats and a single button combat system that defies spell stacking.

Would you prefer a character levelling system more like traditional RPGs, or am I bleating after a stat-heavy history that’s best left in the past?

To build on this, there needs to be some kind of spellcrafting system like in Oblivion. Oblivion’s was a bit simple, but it was on the right track, you could even add something similar for melee attacks. One of the most dramatic parts of fights in film, books, anime, etc is the analysis of the opponent. Having to figure out how their abilities work before you can beat them would add a whole new dimension to gameplay.
It would also give you a way to set yourself apart from the crowd. Being one of the few spellcasters to perfect a creative combination of spell effects would make you stand out as an exceptional player.

You have to be careful when it comes to armor stats though. WoW is an example of what happens when you make your armor statistics too deep. Each piece turns into a huge collection of numbers rather than feeling like an object in the world. Offering the player more options instead of bigger numbers is the way to go in my opinion. DnD is a good example of this, where most magical items give you some sort of special ability rather than giving you a straight stat boost. I mean, do we really need 1500 different kinds of magical belts?

I’m like you and miss the old games were I could customize my avatar in numerous ways. What I’ve heard is that to keep the game balanced, the devs need to know that every player fits into a certain mold and from there, they and the other players, can determine if he’s balanced.

In a MMO, being balanced is a very good thing but I’m starting to think maybe just balanced against NPCs and not other players. I’m looking forward to the permanent removal of levels & level caps and going for skills like Earthrise and Mortal Online speak of. Perhaps in these and other games, devs will give players more options to tune themselves.

Eve already does this in a certain why. In choosing your race (one of 4) and Bloodline (one of 3 in your race) you get modifiers on the flat stats. Each race has different template that the bloodlines improve upon in a set way and then you are given 5 free points to tweak the 6 stat areas. These stats don’t make you better at the game in any action, but are what determines how fast you learn skills in eve which are what determines your proficiency with everything.

The reason that things like stat distribution has disappeared is that it simply doesn’t add enough value to justify the problems it creates. One of the problems is that the hardcore theorycrafters would immediately calculate the optimal stat spread which all knowledgeable players would then use. The net effect would be that most characters are virtually identical anyway while the more casual players (noobs) would become even more gimped with their silly “personalized” stats. Those are the players that pay your bills, you need to take care of them. Widening the gulf between good and less good players even more is just not conducive to a successful MMO.

Character customization is still very important and I agree that we could use more of it but it needs to be done in more interesting ways that actually matter, distributing stat points is not the answer.

A very good point, but it’s a pretty sad indictment of MMOs that people want and can reduce games to basically an Excel spreadsheet. I’m not sure whether it reflects worse on the gamers that find enjoyment in that type of gameplay, or the developers who create a game that is “best” played in such a manner.

I mention stats, because I happen to personally enjoy that form of development for my character.

I’m quite open to different ways of shaping your character’s abilities, as long as they do offer meaningful and not simply aesthetic differences.

[…] – Persistence and story telling How to create the perfect MMO – Part 3 – Crafting How to create the perfect MMO – Part 4 – Character customisation How to create the perfect MMO – Part 5 – Simulation How […]

Skill based is the key, skill based not these idiot level/class based games that we have now. Things have been so dumbed down. (you can always include a one-click template button for the less intellectually gifted players.)

I think the MUD “Dragonrealms” had a good thing going – characters could decide which skills they wanted and each one could be leveled, although some were guild specific and required for leveling. For instance, if you wanted to use a bow, you go out and use one and as you use it, you get better at it, same with each type of weapon/armor, also survival skills such as hiding, perception, etc. Specific guild skills were easier to get the ranks than non guild skills, but if you wanted your Plate armored Paladin to learn swimming, you go swim (removing armor first because plate is pretty heavy). Anyway, customizing like this was very nice.